Do blind people picture sounds and smells in their head instead of pictures?

Question

It's a figure of speech. How else do you word it.....I geuss imagine smells and sounds. If you have an IQ of 10 and above you should be able to figure out what I meant.

Answer 1

That's a good question... if I understand you correctly you want to know what sort of a void occurs when sight is taken away...uhhhh...that's a toughie. I believe that the way the body would function the same except their brain would interpret more aural stuff. Plus the kinesthetic sense would just overwhelm the realm of visual to the point where it doesn't become a big issue anymore.

Answer 2

Excuse me, blind people cannot see, but they can smell and hear..no need to picture anything..Your question needs to be reworded if you meant anything else. Other than that, I answered your question........

Answer 3

whaaat?   doesn't make a lot of sense.

easy killer.. you are cranky aren't you?!

Answer 4

I'm afraid all of these answers above are incorrect. First, let me say that it's a perfectly normal question. Secondly, the "if one sense goes, the others are heightened" is not something that necessarily happens. Some people who lose a sense report it, but not all. The answer to your question is similar: Some people report experiencing sounds and smells as visual sensations. However, I'm not aware of any research that shows convincingly that this is more likely in the blind. What you're asking about is called Synesthesia. Some people definitely report having this and there have been some studies that have tested people in such a way that suggests they are actually doing this. Check this out on wikipedia, but please realize that this is crude. You really need a psychology textbook or article to get the full story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

For an example, and also a couple of famous experimental psychologists discussing this, see this little movie about one individual who has been tested and shows the types of visual/spatial consistencies you'd expect if someone were really experiencing Synesthesia:

http://snipurl.com/brainman

It's a fun topic...but I haven't seen any papers that demonstrate that it's unique to blind people...some of them report it, some don't. Unfortunately popular movies and books give the impression that it's automatic when you lose a sense.

Answer 5

A blind person's other senses are enhanced when one or more senses are rendered disabled.

This does not mean that they morph into spiderman quality genetic mutations...  mutant ninja turtles, instead.